Abstract

Whereas the use of most punctuation marks is thought to be governed by grammatical rules, some punctuation marks can be used in a more expressive way that rather reflects emotions and/or attitudes of the writer instead of grammatical properties. In this paper, we will discuss the distinction between grammatical and expressive punctuation and suggest that pragmatic punctuation marks exhibit certain features that the more grammatical punctuation marks do not: They are expressive, they can occur rather freely inside a sentence, they can be repeated to intensify their effect, and they can be combined with other expressive punctuation. A comparison of commas and exclamation points illustrates the difference between grammatical and pragmatic punctuation marks. We will investigate the most common punctuation marks with respect to these properties and assign them a place in what may be called the grammar-pragmatics continuum of punctuation. We will conclude with a comparison between expressive punctuation and emojis which can be used to fulfill similar roles and present a case study of the combination „!?!“.